150 Acts of Reconciliationfor Canada's 150

On August 4th, there are 150 days left in 2017 – the year of Canada’s 150th birthday. There have been robust discussions this year around reconciliation and we would like to contribute to the conversation. Together, we have written 150 Acts of Reconciliation for the last 150 days of 2017. Many of these are small, everyday acts that average Canadians can undertake, but others are more provocative that encourage people to think about Indigenous-settler relationships in new ways. We encourage you to use #150Acts to share your engagement with each item on the list.

Learn the land acknowledgment in your region.

Find your local reconciliation organization.

If there isn’t one, consider joining together with others to start one.

Attend a cultural event, such as a pow-wow (yes, all folks are invited to these!).

Purchase an item from an Indigenous artist. For instance, if you are interested in owning a dreamcatcher or a pair of moccasins, find an Indigenous artist who can craft these items for you and provide you with information about these special creations.

Gently counter racist or stereotypical comments with fact-based information whether you are at a party, the office, or the gym.

Write your local councilor, MLA, or MP about the flying of Indigenous flags at local, provincial/territorial, or federal buildings.

Understand and acknowledge that Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, was an architect of genocide. Say that aloud with us. “John A. Macdonald was an architect of genocide.”

Write a letter to your local RCMP Officer in Charge or local Police Chief to inquire about how the police force is actively engaged in fostering connections with local Indigenous communities. If they are not doing so, ask that they start.

Show your support on social media. ‘Like’ pages and ‘share’ posts that support Indigenous endeavours.

Listen to Indigenous music. If you do not know any, listen to CBC’s Reclaimed. Or start with an album by Tanya Tagaq or Leonard Sumner.

Find the Indigenous section at your local library.

Read the TRC. Seriously. Start with the Calls to Action, then the Executive Summary. You can even listen to it online at #ReadtheTRC. Better yet, invite your friends or colleagues to read it with you.

Go and see Indigenous scholars and intellectuals speak.

Hire Indigenous people for positions at your workplace.

If you live in an area where there is a Treaty relationship, read the treaty document.

Write to your municipal, provincial, and federal representatives and ask them how they are implementing the Calls to Action.

Follow up with your representatives about the Calls to Action.

Read Marilyn Poitras’ reasons for resigning her Commissioner’s position with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ Inquiry.

Find an organization locally that has upcoming programming where you can learn more. In many areas, this is the Native Friendship Centre.

Learn about how the child welfare system is failing Indigenous families. Write a letter to your elected representative asking for change.

Remember when Stephen Harper’s government sent body bags to the Wasagamack First Nation during the H1N1 influenza outbreak instead of trained medical professionals with vaccines?

Did you know there was a separate and inferior health care system for Indigenous peoples? Read Maureen Lux’s book, Separate Beds (2016).

Be aware that Indigenous people were restricted from voting in federal elections until 1960.

Do you have access to clean drinking water? You are lucky. Also, ‘luck’ really has nothing to do with it; these conditions were historically engineered.

In a country that is ‘safe,’ such as Canada, 57% of Indigenous women are sexually assaulted during their lifetimes.

Recall that First Nations people were forced to choose between maintaining their Status under the Indian Act and going to university or serving in the armed forces, and women lost their status by marrying a non-Indigenous person.

Find out who was forced out of your area before you moved there, whether centuries ago or more recently with new housing developments.

Imagine living for six weeks on a hunger strike, with no sustenance but broth. To get a meeting with the prime minister. Hello, Chief Theresa Spence.

Write to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and ask that the government implement the promises he made to Indigenous people in the 2015 election.

Does your child have a school nearby? Realize that it receives better funding that on-reserve schools. By at least 30%.

Recognize that Indigenous legal orders and laws guiding society existed in this land before the authority of the Canadian nation state.

When travelling, know whose land you are visiting while on vacation or travelling for work.

Do more than google.

If you are talking about or researching Indigenous peoples, have you included any of their voices?

Support Indigenous parents by learning the issues that they are faced with, which are often scenarios that settler Canadians take for granted. For instance, the use of Indigenous names on government documents and how that can be problematic. But also how these ‘issues’ can be resolved by speaking out!

Do not assume that you are entitled to attend a local sweat or other spiritual ceremony.

BUT if you are invited to ceremony – definitely go. This is an honour!

If you actually want to see the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people change, and commit to making reconciliation a part of your every-day ethos.

When visiting a museum, do so critically. Ask who tells the story, how that item got there, and what processes are in place around repatriation.

Consider the line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. Chelsea Vowel has a good blog post about this.

Follow @Resistance150 on Twitter and learn why Canada 150 is not something to celebrate for many Indigenous peoples. After all, Canada does not celebrate the fact that Indigenous Nations have existed in this land since Time Immemorial.

Observe what is celebrated and recognized in the monuments, parks, and street names in your city. Think about how public history could be told differently.

Learn the original names of places. Learn what places were and are important to Indigenous people.

Make reconciliation a family project and complete items on this list together. Bring your children to events, learn words in an Indigenous language together, and organize a youth blanket exercise, for example.

Start your own Heart Garden with messages of support for residential school survivors.

Start to learn and understand cultural protocol. Know this will change according to Indigenous nation and region.

Commit to being a lifelong student beyond Canada 150.

Look up and learn about an Indigenous athlete. We have NHL players and Olympians among the mix!

The Bering Land bridge is one way of telling migration history. But Indigenous people have their own explanation of ancient histories and that needs to be respected. Read about these conversations here and here.

Share this list on social media.

Look for and share the positive stories about Indigenous people, not just the negative ones.

Invite local Indigenous people in to your event or organization.

Know that when you are inviting an Indigenous person in, they are often overburdened and overworked.

Give an honorarium if you expect an Indigenous person to contribute their time and effort.

Cite Indigenous authors and academics in your work.

Consider using Indigenous research methodologies in your work. Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies (1999) is the singular most important book for this.

Next time you want to talk to an Indigenous person about their background, try your best not to frame the discussion in terms of blood quantum (i.e. how “much” Indigenous or white blood they have). Instead, ask what community they belong to and learn the name of their people.

Actively commit to eliminating stereotypes about Indigenous identities by gently correcting people. For instance, being “mixed blood” does not make one Métis.